Lincoln police say boy who shot teen with pellet gun won’t be charged

LINCOLN, Maine — Police have formally closed their investigation into the pellet-gun shooting of a 15-year-old boy last week by declaring Monday that the teenage boy who fired the projectile will not be charged.

Lincoln police Officer John Walsh closed his investigation on Friday by recommending that no charges be sought, a recommendation that Public Safety Director Dan Summers has accepted, Summers said Monday.

“It is one of those types of things where anything like this could happen to anybody. It wasn’t a situation where a person should have known better,” Summers said Monday. “Accidents do happen and sometimes it doesn’t fall under the reckless category.”

The victim, 15-year-old Deven Rollins, was accidentally hit in the eye on Jan. 11 by a 14-year-old boy who was target-shooting at cans at a West Broadway address. The pellet ricocheted off ice and hit Rollins, police have said. The name of the boy who fired the gun is not being released because he is a juvenile.